Lamp holder for fluorescent lamps



May 18,. 1948. s; H. DANsEREAu 2,441,371

LAMP HOLDER FOR FLUORESCENT LAMPS Filed April 4, 1944 I N V E N TO R GEORGE H. Dawsmmu Patented May 18, 1 948 2,441,871 LAMP HOLDER FOR FLUORESCENT LAMPS George H. Dansereau, Johnston, It. 1., assignor to Harry M. Burt and Guy H. Burt, doing business as The Lloyd Products Company, Providence,

Application April 4, 1944, Serial No. 529,483

14 Claims. (Cl. 173-328) This invention relates to lampholders. More specifically, it pertains to lampholders which are adapted to individually support and supply power to the ends of an elongated electric illuminating device, such as a fluorescent electric discharge lamp, by coaction with the projecting contact pins on the ends thereof.

The lampholder is characterized by its free pivotal movement towards and away from an end of the electric lamp and by the presence of a mechanism for urging the lampholder into coupling engagement with the projecting contact pins; and in these respects it is patterned upon the lampholder shown and described in copending application Serial No. 469,227 filed on December 16, 1942, by Charles E. Dansereau (now Patent No. 2,403,968, dated July 16, 1946), both applications being owned by a common assignee.

It is a general object of this invention to provide a lampholder of the character described which, although operable in the same fashion as the lampholder described in said copending application, has fewer parts, a more easily moldable body, and can be more simply assembled.

More specifically, the lampholder of the instant invention is of the type having a plate which is fixedly mounted on a support and which is pivotally mounted on the lampholder body. The lampholder of the same type shown in said copending application captively secures the plate to a pin embedded in the body. Such construction, while satisfactory from the standpoint of operability, raises the cost of molding. It is, therefore, a more particular object of this invention to provide a lampholder of the character described in which the plate rather than the body carries the captive securing means so that molding of the body is simplified.

Another aspect of the instant invention relates to the means for resiliently urging the body against the electric illuminating device and an object of the invention pertaining thereto is to provide a means of this nature which comprises fewer parts than the corresponding means in said copending application, enables a less intricately recessed body to be employed, and is far simpler to mount in the body.

' Other objects of this invention will in part be obvious and in part hereinafter pointed out.

The invention accordingly consists in the tea"- tures of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described,

In the accompanying drawings, in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of this invention,

Fig, 1 is a side elevational view of a pair of lampholders, embodying my invention, mounted on a support and cooperatively holding a fluorescent electric discharge lamp;

Fig. 2 is a rear view of one of the lampholders shown in Fig. 1 with the back cover plate removed;

Fig. 3 is a front-to-back, vertical central sectional view through one of said lampholders in normal position on the support, the dot-anddash outline superimposed on the figure being illustrative of the position the lampholder assumes when disengagedfrom the lamp contacts;

Figs, 4 and 5 are front and top views, respectively, of the lampholder shown in Fig. 3; and

Figs. 6 and 7 are sectional views taken substantially along the lines 6-6 and 'l'l, respectively, of Fig. 3.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, I have there shown a conventional fluorescent electric discharge lamp I!) mounted, by means of a pair of lampholders l2 incorporating my invention, on a suitable support ll which, by way of example, comprises the housing for the ballast and wiring (not shown) customarily associated with lamps of this nature. The lamp is of the incandescent filament type and has a pair of projecting contact pins H5 at both ends thereof which, as is usual in the lighting field, are adapted to be coupled with the lampholders M to provide both electric power and physical support for the lamp.

The lampholder proper basically includes four essential elements, to wit: a body i8, a mounting plate 20 adapted to be secured firmly to the support l4 and having means for pivotal captive securement to the body, means 22 for resiliently urging the body into coupling engagement with the contact pins l5, and means 24 to effect a detachable electric connection between said pins and a source of electric power. It will be appreciated as the description proceeds that the instant invention is concerned only with the construction of the resilient means 22 and the means for pivotally captively securing the mounting plate on the body, so that, although an electrical connecting means 24 and body are necessary to the proper operation of thelampholder, their specific construction forms no part of my invention and is hereinafter described in detail, only by way oi example.

Thebody l8, which is preferably molded from a plastic electrically non-conductive material, comprises a. pedestal 28 and an elongated integral standard 28. The front of the standard, 1. e. the surface facing the lamp, is level and unbroken except by two through transverse apertures 36 (Fig. 4) designed to receive the contact pins l6, two grooves 32 which guide said pins into the apertures and rock the lampholder, and a through transverse slot 33 which is centrally located at' the base of the standard and pivotally engages the mounting plate 26. The front of the pedestal has a deep central groove 34 to facilitate attachment of the mounting plate 26 to the support I4.

A marginal ledge 36 on the rear of the lampholder and extending around all but the top ing portion of the bottom face 16 of the pedestal edge thereof, defines a seat which receives a back cover plate 38 of an electrically non-conductive sheet held in position by screws 46 threaded into tapped bores 42 opening at the rear of the lamp holder. Said rear face is also provided with a pair of longitudinally extending elongated spaced recesses 44 adjacent the lateral portions of the ledge 36 to accommodate metallic strips 46 comprising part of the means 24 for supplying electric power to the lamp in. Said recesses run into another pair of spaced recesses 48 at the top of the pedestal in which angularlydisposed terminal legs 56 of the strips 46 are contained. Longitudinal shifting of the strips is prevented by ridges 52 on the side walls of the upper recesses 48. Binding screws 64 threadedly received in the legs 50 serve to effect connection between the socket and its source of electric power supp The elongated recesses 44 terminate in wide depressions 56 with which the rear ends of the pin receiving apertures communicate. Said depressions house pin engaging socket contacts each comprising opposed concave wiping blades 58 integrally carried on the strips 46 by spaced sheet metal fingers 60 which are oppositely twisted 90 intermediate the strips and the blades to permit the blades to be resiliently forced apart upon entry of a contact pin l6 therebetween. Optionally a depression 62 may be formed at the lower end of the rear face of the standard to reduce the weight of the body.

Another elongated depression 64 is provided on the rear faceof the lampholder, this depression, which extends longitudinally away from the pedestal and has its upper end at the rear of the slot 33, serving' to house the means 22 for resiliently urging the body I8 into coupling engagement with the contact pins.

The mounting plate 26 is composed of a rigid sheet of any form maintaining material, e. g. heavy gauge sheet steel, and includes a fiat body portion 66 approximately as wide as the standard, a central coplanar flat tongue 68 (Figs. 3 and 6) which extends freely through the slot 33 into the depression 64, and a pair of lateral flat arms 16 spread apart a distance slightly less than the width of the standard and embracing the standard on both sides thereof adjacent the pedestal. The tips 12 of the arms are inturned, e. g. by bending or swedging the same, after the tongue has been fully thrust into the slot until an edge of the body portion 66 abuts the front face of the pedestal. The distance between the inturned tips 12 and the edge of the body portion 66 from which the arms extend is slightly greaterthan the overall thickness of the pedestal whereby to permit a relative and limited rocking movement of the body and mounting plate while captively is undercut, as by sloping it away from the mounting plate 26; the extent of the undercut also serve to limit rocking movement of the lampholder away from the lamp. The undercut terminates where the pedestal merges into the standard thereby positioning the rocking fulcrum at the front end of the slot 33 and, more specifically, as will soon be seen, at the upper edge of the slot, 1. e., the edge furthest from the standard.

A threaded aperture 18 is tapped through the body portion of the plate to afford means for firmly attaching said plate to the support l4. Such attachment may be effected by a screw 88 whose fillet head is fitted into a countersunk aperture 82 in the underside of the support and whose shank is screwed into the threaded aperture 16. Alternatively the head of the attaching screw 88 may be disposed on the upper side of the mounting plate and its shank threaded into a tapp d aperture in the support and it is for such modified attachment that the groove 34 is provided in the pedestal.

It will be observed that the mounting plate lies on the upper surface of the support H in order to conceal said plate; however, it is within the scope of the invention to place the plate on the lower surface of the support, if desired, and to this end, to space the slot away from the pedestal a distance at least equal to the thickness of the thickest support likely to be employed in the field.

The means 22 for resiliently urging the body into coupling engagement with the contact pins I6 comprises a spring 84 housed in the depression 64 and held under compression between the bottom 86 of said depression and the under surface of the tongue 68. It will-be appreciated that this spring may be easily and rapidly mounted simply by forcing the same into the depression before the cover plate 38 is attached.

Pursuant to an ancillary feature of the invention, the spring is of such construction that, although not captively held in the depression when the cover plate is removed, it will not tend to buckle or to jump out of the lampholder even when the body and mounting plate are relatively rocked. For this purpose the spring, which is made of resilient spring wire stock has its two ends formed into fiat loops 88 extending through a substantial arcof from between 180 and 360. This provides good bearing on the tongue and bottom 86 of the depression 64. One end of each loop has an inturned radially directed finger 96 (Fig. 6) which is integrally connected to the operative central portion 92 of the spring within the loop and, preferably, near the center of the loop so as to obtain a condition of stable equi within the predetermined maximum compression to which the spring is subjected said bend will not press against the cover plate 38 or walls of the depression 64.

The spring biases the tongue 68 against the pedestal and thus resiliently urges the body towards the lamp and into coupling engagement with the contact pins.

It will thus be seen that there is provided a device in which the several objects of this invention are achieved, andwhich is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A lampholder of the character described for mounting on a support a lamp having at least one contact'pin at each end thereof, said lampholder comprising a body having at least one transverse aperture to receive a pin at one end of the lamp, said aperture extending inwardly of the body from a face thereof, an electrical contact carried by said body and disposed so as to detachably engage a pin in said aperture, means to mount said body for free'pivotal movement relative to said support so that said aperture can be swung towards and away from said pin, the axis of pivotal movement of said body being to one side of the longest axis of the lamp, said mounting means comprising a plate adapted to be firmly attached to the support, means to pivotally attach said plate to said body and means in one piece with said plate to loosely captively secure said plate to said body so as to permit limited rocking movement of said body relative to said plate, and means to resiliently bias said body toward said lamp, said aperture being remote of the axis of pivotal movement of said body and on the side thereof on which the long axis of the lamp is disposed.

2. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means to captively secure the plate to the body comprises a pair of plate portions spaced transversely (side-to-side) of the body and embracing a part of the body therebetween and another pair of plate portions spaced trans- .versely (front-to-back) of the body and embracing a part of the body therebetween, a portion of the plate extending into an aperture in the body.

3. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means to captively secure the plate to the body comprises a pair of plate rtions spaced transversely (side-to-side) of the body and embracing a part of the body therebetween and another pair of plate portions spaced transversely (front' to-back) of the body and embracing a part of the body therebetween, a portion of the plate extending into an aperture in the body adjacent the pivotal axis.

4. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means to captively secure the plate to the body comprises an edge of said plate disposed adjacent the front surface of the body, a pair of arms extending from said plate, said arms being spaced transversely (side-to-side) of said body and embracing 'a part of the body therebetween, and angular extensions on said arms disposed adjacent rearwardly facing surbeing spaced'transversely (side-to-side) of said body and embracing a part to the body therebetween, the tips of said arms being inturned to lie adjacent rearwardly facing surfaces of the body, a portion of the plate extending through a front-to-back opening in the body.

6. A lampholder of the character described for mounting on a support a lamp having at least one contact pin at each end thereof, said lampholder comprising a body having at least one transverse aperture to receive a pin at one end of the lamp, said aperture extending inwardly of the body from-a face thereof, an electrical contact carried by said body and disposed so as to detachably engage a' pin in said aperture. means to mount said body for free pivotal movement relative to said support so that said aperture can be swung towards and away from said pin, the axis of pivotal movement of said body being to one side of the longest axis of the lamp, said mounting means comprising a plate adapted to be firmly attached to the support, a through transverse (front-to-back) aperture in said body, a tongue on said plate extending through said last named aperture and serving to pivotally attach said plate to said body and means carried by said plate only to captively secure said plate to said body, said last named means comprising a pair of arms extending from the plate, said arms being spaced transversely (side-to-side) of said body and embracing a part of the body therebetween, angular extensions on said arms disposed adjacent rearwardly facing surfaces of the body and an edge of said plate being disposed adjacent the front surface of the body, and means to resiliently bias said body toward said lamp, said first named aperture being remote of the axis Of pivotal movement of said body and on the side thereof on which the long axis of the lamp is disposed.

7. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein the resilient biasing means comprises a compression spring within the body having one end bearing directly against the plate and the other end bearing directly against the body.

8. A lampholder, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the resilient biasing means comprises a compression spring within the body whose ends are shaped to define fiat bearing surfaces, one of which rests directly on the plate, and the other directly on the body.

9. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein the resilient biasing means comprises a compression spring having one end bearing directly against the plate and the other end bearing didirectly against the plate and the other end bearing directly againstthe body, both ends of I the spring being formed into plane legs to provide flat bearing surfaces.

11. A lampholder, as set forth in claim 1,

wherein the resilient biasing means comprises a compression spring whose ends are shaped to deilne flat bearing surfaces, one of which rests directly on the plate, and the other directly on the body, the central portion of said spring including an approximately vertical columnwith a permanent medially transverse slight bend therein.

12. A lampholder, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the resilient biasing means comprises a, compression spring whose ends are shaped to define fiat bearing surfaces, one of which rests directly on the plate, and the other directly on the body, the central portion of said spring including an approximately vertical column with a permanent medially transverse slight bend therein, the ends of said central portion being disposed within the bearing ends of the spring and being integrally connected thereto.

18. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein the resilient biasing means comprises a compression spring having one end bearing directly against the plate and the other end bearing directly against the body, both ends of the spring being formed into plane legs to provide flat bearing surfaces, the central portion of said spring including'an approximately vertical column with a permanent medially transverse slight bend therein.

said spring including an approximately vertical column with a permanent medially transverse slight bend therein, the ends or said central portion being disposed within the loops and integrally connected thereto.

GEORGE H. DAN BEREAU.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Kurtzon Nov. 12, 1940 Osterloo May 19, 1942 Number Bead Jan. 25, 1944 2,349,255 Epstein May 23, 1944 Mueller et a1. Sept. 15. 1942 

